Clock



A. DORSEY March 13, 1934.

CLOCK Original Filed Dec. 25 1922 INVENTOR AT RNEY Patented Maf. 13, 1934 UNITED STATES CLG Arthur Dorsey, New York, N. Y.

Original application Dece 608,600. Divided and mber 23, 1922, Serial No. this application March 24, 1930, Serial No. 438,327

12 Claims.

This invention relates generally to clocks and instruments of a similar nature, being a division of Patent 1,751,542 of March 25, 1930, application led December 23, 1922, Ser. No. 608,600.

Special objects of the present invention are to provide a case of improved design and construction, which while of simple, light and inexpensive form, will be rigid and strong and will hold the clock mechanism securely and well braced within the same; to facilitate the assembling and mounting of the clock mechanism in the case and to facilitate the mounting and unmounting of the clock assembly relative to a supporting base or panel.

Other objects of the invention and the novel v features of construction, combinations and relations of parts by which such objects are attained will appear as the specification proceeds.

The drawing accompanying and forming part of the specication illustrates a practical embodiment and one of the modifications of the invention, but as other changes may be made, within the scope of the invention, such disclosure is to be considered as illustrative rather than limiting in its nature.

Fig. l in the drawing is a front elevation of the clock; Fig. 2 is a Vertical sectional view of the same; Figs. 3` and 4 are fragmentary and part sectional Views illustrating a modified construction of the mounting screws.

The body of the clock case, designated a, is shown formed as a cup drawn all in one piece and disposed with what is the back or bottom wall of the cup at the front of the clock and the open side of the cup at the rear. The arch of the cup provides a reinforcement, enabling use of relatively thin light and' inexpensive material and the rearwardly disposed open side of the cup is braced and reinforced by an outstanding annular ilange a', the latter being utilized also for mounting purposes, giving additional reinforcement.

The case is further strengthened and reinforced in the construction illustrated, by the back plate b, which is dished inwardly at b in the nature of an annular truss and lapped on the flange a. This construction and arrangement relatively centers the cup and back plate, provides a tight dust-proof joint between the two and offsets the main portion of the back plate away from the face of the panel or mounting plate c, on which the clock is supported, leaving space between the mounting plate and back plate for the movement securing nuts or fastenings.

The case thus formed in two parts is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 as removably supported on the base or mounting plate c by means of three screws d, d', d2, passing through the cup flange a and lapped portion of the back plate b into screw seats in the mounting plate or panel. Two oi the screws, d, d', are shown placed at substan- 60 tially equal distances to opposite sides of the center line or" the case and near enough to the center line to effectively support the weight and resist torsional stresses. The third screw d2 is shown placed substantially on the center line of v the case at the upper side thereof and as passing through slots a2 formed in the lapped portions of the annular flange and back plate. The latter construction facilitates removal of the clock assembly, as by loosening the top screw d2 and 70 withdrawing screws d, d', the case may be lowered and removed without taking out the upper screw, which may remain in place and serve as a means of locating the case when it is again mounted.

The frame of the clock mechanism is indicated generally at e and is shown as rmly mounted in the case by means of the front and back nuts f, f', engaged on the ends of the pillars projecting through the iront and back of the case respectively. With this construction, the pillars constitute trusses strengthening the case as well as supporting the movement. These through connections secure the two parts of the case together, so that the case and movement can be es taken on" the panel or mounting plate as a complete assembly, this result being eiTected as above described by simply loosening the upper screw d2 and taking out the two lower screws d, d.

The back plate may be taken off upon simply removing the nuts f', thus leaving the movement secured in the cupped front portion of the case.

On the other hand, upon removal of the nuts i,

the movement may be left attached to the back plate and the front part of the case be taken 01T, this of course, after the time indicating dial p or other obstructing parts have been removed from the arbor i, projecting from the front of the case. Thus, it is possible to leave the clock movement attached to either of the front or back of the case and to readily detach it from either of these case parts.

Another special feature of the case is that it serves as a mount for the pointer or index 1', which cooperates with the time indicating dial p in a way to show the time. This pointer may be simply a sheet metal bracket as shown, attached to the side of the body of the case and extending forwardly into position to cooperate with the edge of the time dial.

The modifications illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4 consist in forming the mounting screws, here designated d3 with reduced neck portions d4, direcly beneath the heads of the screws, which cause them to hang in the screw openings d5 in the flange a of the case, after the forward screwthreaded portions d6 of the screws have been passed through such openings. The portions of the flange surrounding these screw passages d5 are shown as bossed outwardly as at a3, providing shallow cupped portions at the back of the flange, receiving the inner ends d6 of the screws and forming at the outside flat raised seats or pads for the heads of the screws and of larger area than said heads. This construction obviates the need for slotting the flange as above described at a2, since in this second form of the invention, all three screws need simply be loosened from the mounting plate, they then coming off with and remaining loosely attached to the case assembly. 'Ihe holes d5 for the mounting screws d3 may be tapped so that the screws may be easily screwed through the same, after which they will then ordinarily remain loosely hung in place, extending freely through the aligned openings in the back plate and ready to enter the screw seats provided therefor -in the mounting plate.

Changes in the details of construction of the various parts may be made without departing from the true spirit of the invention, as will be apparent from the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A clock construction comprising a cupped case member arranged with the end Wall of the cup at the front of the clock structure, a dished back plate closing the open end of the cup, a clock movement within the cupped case member, said movement being secured to and supported by the end wall of the cup at the front and secured to said back plate at the rear and having its arbor projecting through said end wall at the front of the structure, the case member having an outwardly extending annular flange at the open end of the same and the back plate extending over and secured in lapped relation therewith and fastenings for mounting the clock extending through both the annular flange of the case member and the lapped portion of the back plate.

2. A clock case comprising a cupped case member having an outstanding edge flange and a back plate secured in lapped engagement with said flange and having a dished portion projected into the cupped case member and supporting means extending through both the outstanding edge flange of the cupped case member and the lapped portion of the dished back plate.

3. A clock construction comprising a cupped case member, a back plate closing the open end of the cup, a clock movement within the cupped case member, a mounting plate, screw means securing said case member and back plate together and in supported relation on the mounting plate and mounting means for the movement independent of said screw means and engaged with both the case member and with the back plate adapted to hold said case member and back plate together when removed from the mounting plate.

4. A clock case and mounting screws therefor, said clock case having threaded openings for passage of the screws and the screws having intermediate portions of the Shanks of the same reduced to cause the screws to hang loosely in the said threaded openings, after being passed through the openings, the case having bossed parlions about such openings flattened to provide bearings for the screw heads and of larger area than such screw heads.

5. A clock case consisting of a cup having a flange extending outward around the circumference at the edge of the open end of said cup, a back plate dished inward with respect to the cup and lapped over said flange, said cup and back plate being detachable from each other and having aligned screw holes in said lapped portions of the same and arranged one on the vertical center line of the case and two others at opposite sides of said vertical center line, a threepoint support including .two screws passing through the aligned screw holes in said cup and back plate at opposite sides of said center line, and a third screw passing through the aligned screw holes in said cup and back plate on said center line, said cup and back plate being provided with coinciding slots from said last mentioned screw holes to their respective outer circumferences to receive the body of the last named screw.

6. A clock case comprising a cupped member having an outstanding edge flange and a back plate in lapped engagement with said flange, headed mounting screws for said clock case, said screws having reduced neck portions between the opposite ends of the same, the outstanding flange of the cupped member having threaded openings to pass the screw threaded ends of the mounting screws and to loosely receive the reduced neck portions of the screws and the lapped p0rtions of the back plate having larger openings in line with the threaded openings of the flange loosely receiving the threaded end portions of the screws and whereby said screws will be loosely retained by the edge flange when the screws are not in service for mounting the clock case.

7. A clock case comprising a cupped member having an outstanding edge flange and a back plate in lapped engagement with said flange, headed mounting screws for said clock case, said screws having reduced neck portions between the opposite ends of the same, the outstanding flange of the cupped member having threaded openings to pass the screw threaded ends of the mounting screws and to loosely receive the reduced neck portions of the screws and the lapped portions of the back plate having larger openings in line with the threaded openings of the flange loosely receiving the threaded end portions of the screws, whereby said screws will be loosely retained by the edge flange when the screws are not in service for mounting the clock case and a clock movement within the case having pillars secured to the cupped member and back plate of the case and thereby securing said case members together and holding them in assembled relation when the mounting screws are not in service for mounting the clock structure.

8. A clock case and headed mounting screws therefor, said clock case comprising cupped members and a laterally projecting flange portion, said laterally projecting flange portion having openings threaded to receive said mounting screws and said screws having intermediate p0rtions of the shanks of the same reduced to hang loosely in the openings after the threaded ends of the screws have been passed through said threaded openings in the outstanding flange portion of the case.

9. In combination, a clock movement having pillars, cupped clock case members on opposite sides of and enclosing said movement, said opposing case members being secured to said movement pillars and whereby said members of the case are held together, an outstanding flange projecting from the case members and mounting screws engaged with said outstanding flange and by which the structure may be mounted entirely independently of the fastening of the case mem.- bers together.

10. In combination, a clock movement, cooperating front and back case members enclosing said movement, means securing said opposed case members to opposite faces of said clock movement and whereby the case members are removably secured together and to the clock movement, an outstanding flange projecting laterally from the case members and mounting screws engageable with said laterally projecting flange.

11. In combination, a clock movement, cooperating front and back case members enclosing said movement, means securing said opposed case members to opposite faces of said clock movement and whereby the case members are removably secured together and to the clock movement, an outstanding flange projecting laterally from the case members and mounting screws engageable with said laterally projecting flange, the securing means for the front case member and for the back case member being independently releasable whereby one case member may be removed from the clock movement independently of the other.

l2. In combination with a clock assembly and a mounting plate therefor, said clock assembly having a flange for cooperation with said mounting plate, the mounting plate having a screw seat and the flange having a similarly screw threaded opening therethrough and a mounting screw having a screw threaded end portion to pass through the screw threaded opening in the flange and into engagement with the screw seat in the mounting plate, said screw having a reduced neck portion in back of the screw threaded end portion of the same adapted to drop loosely into the screw threaded opening through the ange when the screw is backed out of the screw seat in the mounting panel and whereby the screw threads in the flange opening will. act to loosely hold the screw to the flange when the clock assembly is removed from the mounting panel.

ARTHUR DORSEY. 

